Sidekick
by JaneApricity
Summary: Things are different on Earth 121 than other worlds. The beloved Team Flash has more than just Speedsters and scientists; they work with metas that others might know as villains. And the infamous Team Arrow is even more infamous on Earth 121. In fact, they are the sworn enemies of the team at S.T.A.R. Labs. Running between it all is Abbi Garret, an agent of A.R.G.U.S. who has gone
1. Chapter 1

Apparently, I have a thing for guys in black leather.

I mean, it honestly sounds embarrassing when I say it like that. Maybe I should rephrase to "guys in black leather have a thing for me." That sounds a little better.

Currently, it was John Diggle and his black leather coat.

"C'mon, Abigail," he urged me. "Waller wants me gone in twenty-four hours. I can't leave the Verdant unsupervised."

"You mean Oliver unsupervised," I said, crossing my arms.

"Oliver, Thea, Laurel, it's all a mess," Diggle said. "Surely you can leave S.T.A.R. Labs for a week."

"I absolutely cannot," I said.

"Because of Merlyn?" Diggle asked.

I looked up at the ceiling of C.C. Jitters with a sigh. He'd brought up Malcolm Merlyn on purpose. Yet another black-leather-clad man that I'd gone a little googly-eyed over at one point. To be perfectly fair, he had been equally googly-eyed until he'd decided I was too close in age to his daughter.

"It has nothing to do with Merlyn," I said stubbornly. "We've got some new wild cards at S.T.A.R. Labs. I can't leave Team Flash for longer than this coffee meeting."

John Diggle was so desperate to find Waller a new babysitter for Team Arrow that he'd taken a train down to Central City. I was determined to be adamant, however.

"Can't your wife take it?"

Diggle gave me a look. "And who'd take care of Sarah? Oliver has a thing about kids being in the Arrow Cave."

"Who would Sarah tell?" I asked, mystified. "Or has Oliver just gotten it into his head that he can break it?" That sounded like Oliver.

"I'm pretty sure it's some moral thing," Diggle said.

"Oliver always did have the strangest logic concerning that sort of thing."

"Abi, I still need someone to watch over Team Arrow while I'm gone," Diggle reminded me.

I sighed.

"How can A.R.G.U.S. order you to be in two places at once? Look, I'll do what I can. Maybe our new Speedster can help run me over since he's not in Felicity's security system yet," I said.

"Thank you." Diggle put a hand over mine, smiled, then stood up.

"Yeah, yeah." I went to the counter to get an extra coffee to go as Diggle left. "One Flash, please."

As the barista whipped up my to-go order, I looked out the glass doors at Central City. It looked peaceful for the first time in a while. There were no raging Metas, no clashing of vigilante teams, no near-missile strikes from A.R.G.U.S. Not even that weird sky-beam thing we'd seen a few weeks ago.

Coffee in hand, I stepped out into the streets and started walking to S.T.A.R. Labs. Things felt pretty perfect.

A little too perfect.

Luckily, the feeling didn't last long.

Something snatched me around my waist, and the city blurred by for a few seconds before I realized that a Speedster had grabbed me. We stopped in S.T.A.R. Labs, my clothes smoking slightly.

Barry stepped back, arms raised and grin wide like he was expecting an award.

"What was that for?" I asked, eyes still a little wide from the sudden trip.

"It seems that Misters Snart and Rory have located our Syphon problem," Harrison Wells said.

"Uh, I helped," Cisco put in. He slapped a Twizzler against the computer desk, grinning.

I set down my coffee. "Oh yes. I freaking love you guys. When are we going in?"

"Uh, like right now?" Barry said. He took a few backward steps then spun around. I was almost surprised he didn't zoom us all there instantly.

"That would be unwise," Wells interjected. "We don't have the entire team here."

Uh oh. Keeping the team in line was my job. Not that they really knew that.

Cisco, Barry and Wells were here in the Cortex. Leonard and Mitch were wherever Syphon was. That left Caitlin, Jesse, Wally, and Hunter Zolomon. And if I were particularly anxious, I'd want to locate Team Flash Allies. Joe and Iris West, Peekaboo, and Firestorm, for example.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Cait's with Ronnie," Cisco said.

"I believe Jesse and Wally are training," Wells added. There was just a note of disapproval in his voice. I hid a smirk by taking a sip of coffee. Protective daddy, I suppose.

"So that leaves Hunter," I said.

I didn't like that one bit. Hunter was arguably the one I needed to keep an eye on the most.

He didn't show up with the other Metas. He hadn't even been around during Team Arrow's conception. He had only arrived a few weeks ago, calling himself Zoom and looking like Central City's new golden boy. He certainly seemed to have a heart of gold.

And I am a sucker for a man in black leather.

But he was brand new, and there was some suspicion with his timing. He'd showed up shortly after the strange beam of light. He claimed that it had sent him here from another world, similar to ours but not similar enough that he felt he would succeed in this earth on his own.

He didn't seem horribly anxious to go back home, which made us wonder what sort of hell he'd come from. But he didn't seem eager to turn this world into a hell either. And heaven knows that Team Flash was desperate for more allies. Otherwise, their next clash with Team Arrow could prove to be fatal for S.T.A.R. Labs.

Everyone liked Hunter. He was old-fashioned and chivalrous, but wicked fast and quick to aid Team Flash. But everyone was still just a little wary of our new hero.

I pulled my phone from my pocket.

"Hello?"

Damn, his voice was as deep and dark as that suit. Did I mention I'm also a sucker for a deep and dark voice?

"Hunter, where you at?" I asked. "We think we've located Syphon."

"Think?" Cisco said. "You do me no credit, woman. I know."

"Cisco seems pretty sure, anyways," I added.

"I'll be right there," Hunter said.

Sure enough, he was. He was standing in the Cortex before my coffee had gone cold.

I grinned.

"Let's round up the others and get this guy in the Pipeline," Barry said. He clapped his hands together and rubbed them before disappearing in a crackle of lightning.


	2. Chapter 2

"This isn't creepy at all."

Team Flash stood in a deserted suburb. It honestly looked like the apocalypse. There was even a sepia tinge to the sky.

Barry, Wally, Hunter and Jesse burst off to check inside each nearly-identical house. I stood with Leonard and Mick, just behind the new S.T.A.R. Labs pickup truck.

"It's not so bad," Leonard Snart drawled. His cold gun rested in the crook of his arm, and he wore his signature parka even though the heat of summer hadn't quite let up.

Mick shrugged. I grimaced, leaning against the bed of the pickup.

"Well, I find it creepy. You guys are sure Siphon is here?" I scanned the empty street, not seeing any noncompliance Metas.

"Positive," Mick said.

Siphon hadn't done anything to us directly... yet. But as Gov-Certified vigilantes-a bit of an oxymoron, I know-it was part of our job to take down any metahumans who refused to comply with an A.R.G.U.S. enforced and government mandated course that was owned by some Bruce Wayne in Gotham City.

Every meta on Team Flash had been through it, including me. Even non-meta vigilantes that wanted to avoid arrest had to take it.

That was probably the root of the Flash vs Arrow rivalry. Oliver Queen himself had taken the course, but never permitted the rest of his team to. And in spite of the glaring offense, A.R.G.U.S. never sought to enforce it. The team at The Verdant was too helpful in Starling and easy to utilize.

Hunter Zolomon was the first of the Speedsters to return.

"Nothing on my blocks," he said grimly. I caught myself staring at the little curtain of dark-blondish hair falling to one side over his forehead. Whatever earth he came from, they had great hair. Really great hair.

"Well, we have three more Speedsters to go," I told him.

"Two. All clear on mine," Wally said, showing up beside me, which sent my hair flying. I nodded to him, brushing the hair out of my face. "Oh, c'mon? He showed up first?"

Hunter flashed him a grin. There was a little spark in that smile that did something funny to my pulse. What was it?

We waited a few more seconds for Jesse, who confirmed another clear zone. We were left to wait on The Flash.

"Cisco? How's Barry?" I said over my earpiece.

"His vitals are checking out," Caitlin said in reply.

"Where's Cisco?"

"Bathroom. He didn't want to miss 'The Big Fight'," Harrison Wells answered.

"Of course," I said, rolling my eyes for the others to see. Wally smirked, but Leonard got a little... er, cold at the mention of Cisco. Which probably had something to do with Lisa.

Barry showed up a few moments later.

"Nothing," he said, slowing down to walk the last few steps towards us.

I tapped my fingers against the side of the truck.

"Well, glad we could all gather together," Leonard said snippily as he got into the back of the truck. Mick followed suit, licking his lips and glaring at me like it was my fault. I took a bit of offense at that.

"You two were the ones who gathered us here," I said.

"Because the power cut," Wally added. "In, ya know, an empty suburb? One that doesn't need power?"

"It didn't cut," Leonard said smoothly. "It drained."

Jesse crossed her arms. "So you never saw Siphon yourself?"

"But something still had to have drained the power," Hunter said. "And if that something wasn't us, then we need to know what it was."

That was why the team loved Hunter. His patriotism towards us in such a short amount of time was nothing less than inspiring. And maybe a little cliche, but hey, that's just me.

"Which is why Mick and I are going to do a drive-around," Leonard said.

"We could do it in a fraction of the time," Barry said.

"For someone with so much speed, you still act like you've gotta compensate for something a lot, don't ya?" Mick said. He waved his heat gun haphazardly towards the Speedsters as he said it.

"Mick, cool it," I said. The last thing we needed was a Barry Allen Temper-Tantrum. "Do a drive-around, the rest of us will do a scan back at the lab."

"I'll go with them," Jesse said. "Just in case." She started to crawl into shotgun.

"Not alone," Wally said. He motioned for Mick to join Leonard in the back as he got into the driver's seat.

"I'm not alone!" Jesse protested.

"I'm still the best driver," Wally argued. He shut the door and started driving. The arguments between all of them faded as the truck disappeared around the corner.

"Do you think Wally realizes that was a cul-de-sac?" Hunter asked, amused.

"They'll figure it out," I said, patting Barry on the shoulder as he laughed. "Someone care to carry me home? I mean, I could fly, but it's a little tiring."

In a blur of black, Hunter Zolomon snatched me around the waist and began carrying me. I only had time to hook my fingers into the leather seam around his neck before the landscape stopped streaming past and we came to a halt.

But we hadn't stopped in S.T.A.R. Labs. It wasn't even my apartment. We were just standing on a sidewalk in a relatively empty part of the city. There was a construction zone right beside us, a couple trees in the sidewalk, and empty shops across the street.

"I need to tell you something," Hunter said, voice deadly serious.

I looked up at Hunter, fully aware of the fact that there was some serious full-body contact going on since neither of us had let go of the other.

"Uh...?" I said intelligently.

"I know what's draining the power there, and it's not Siphon."

"Uh-hunh."

"It's from my world," he said. "About... the incident that brought me here."

My brains snapped back into place, curiosity piqued. "Your world? Wait, what did bring you here? You don't talk about it."

"It was an accident," Hunter said. He still hadn't let go of me. "Someone was trying to do something to all the worlds at once. The entire multiverse."

Multiverse. Hunter didn't just come from another world, he came from another version of our world.

"What was it going to do?" I asked.

"I don't know," Hunter said. There was a stark honesty to his voice. "I thought it was going to destroy all of them, but I got sucked into it and just sent here instead. "

"That beam of light?" I said, horrified that something so sudden could have wiped out our entire earth.

"I have theories as to what it was going to do. It connected all of the multiverses, perhaps sending a death ray or something to implode the planet out to every version of earth at once. The point is, I don't think it ever deactivated. It's now powering itself by pulling bits of electricity from every world at once."

My brow furrowed. "Are you saying our world could be destroyed at any moment? That the beam of whatever could still... blow us up, or implode us?"

"I'm saying that every multiverse now has a connection that isn't shut off," Hunter said. His eyes didn't leave mine, his hands still tight on my waist.

"Other people could come through," I said, breathless, eyes dropping to my fingers curled around the collar of Zoom's suit.

"Even worse," Hunter said. "Other versions of me."

Other versions of Team Flash. Other versions of Team Arrow. Or-horror of horrors-other versions of Amanda Waller.

I looked back up into Hunter Zolomon's eyes just in time to see a little spark of electricity dance through them. A little spark of fear mimicked it within my stomach.


	3. Chapter 3

I found myself spending less time staring at Hunter Zolomon's (lovely) suit and more time catching his eyes. To be perfectly honest, I don't know what we were silently sharing in those moments. Fear? Understanding? Passion?

So probably not that last one. The only passion in my life was how adamantly I disliked A.R.G.U.S.

You know the saying. "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference" or something to that effect. While most A.R.G.U.S. agents were pretty indifferent-just another day at work!-my relationship with the organization was a little more love/hate.

Part of the reason being how A.R.G.U.S. complicated things. I wasn't necessarily guilty about spying on the S.T.A.R. labs team, but I did have to live with the knowledge that someday they would find out. Or that if they stepped out of line, it would be my boss sending the kill orders against them.

Amanda Waller was high on my list of Hates at ARGUS. As a professional, she was pragmatic and got the job done. As a person, she was a butthole and expected me to be the same in all respects.

I once asked my colleague about it.

"Dig, do you ever keep secrets from Waller for Oliver?"

Diggle didn't reply. He only gave me a look that said both "yes" and "be careful."

It wasn't only ARGUS that I wanted to keep Hunter's secret from. None of the members of Team Flash seemed to be in on it, and Hunter hadn't given any signs that it was okay to talk about.

I desperately wanted to. At least with Wells for his own scientific input. Not with everyone; all our Speedsters were a little too hot-headed and curious. All three of them would get a notion about some version of earth with their mothers in it.

"I have a theory," I said to Hunter the next day.

It was a rare moment when no one was in the Cortex except us. The scientists were all huddled around Wells' new speed equation, and the Speedsters were training. Even Iris was down in the Pipeline to interview a newly caught Meta.

"What about?" Hunter looked up at me, a ray of sunshine coming through the high windows to cut across his jaw.

"Speedsters. But I need more data to prove it." I leaned across the desk. "I think that in order to be a speedster, you have to have lost your mother."

Hunter frowned, looking down so that the sunshine hit the top of his head instead.

"What did you leave behind? On your earth?" I asked. "You never seem anxious to go back."

"I wasn't on my earth when I came here," he said. "I was on what they call Earth-1. I'm from Earth-2."

"They?"

"A... different Team Flash," Hunter said. "But no, I have no reason to leave this earth." He looked back up, a small smile on his face.

"You like it here?" I was somehow personally flattered that this traverser of the multiverse liked my earth enough to call it home.

"The people here are... a second chance for me," he said. "You're like the family I never had. Your theory holds true, I'm afraid, although I've lost even more than my mother."

I could suddenly hear my heartbeat as it sent blood pulsing through my ears. Who knew that sympathy could do that? My throat welled up a bit.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'd hoped you could prove my theory false."

Before the conversation could continue, Caitlin had returned.

I was no master scientist. I'd majored in Biology, not physics or even chemistry. In short, I was the last person you wanted trying to unravel the mysteries of the many universes. But I did what I could to look into the matter of Hunter's multiverse beam.

I was definitely able to locate it. I triangulated the power losses-not with one of Cisco's fancy algorithms, but instead by holding a ruler up to Google Maps-and double checked with what Hunter remembered of coming here. I did some basic tests on temperature, air pressure, strange complaints from people living nearby, etc. All I could really determine was its location and that its presence wasn't an immediate danger. I did have some concerns with radiation, but Hunter assured me that it was safe in that regard.

Thr thing that worried me most was something Hunter had said to me. That his worst-case scenario wasn't an alien invasion or army from another universe. He feared other versions of himself.

Somehow, getting him alone proved to be impossible. I had duties as an ARGUS agent and a member of STAR labs, as well as the normal struggles and drama of the large group of friends/lovers/ex-lovers/family members that made up Team Flash and its allies. On top of it, one of Team Arrow's allies was in Central City. All of it combined made for a busy mess of never being alone with Hunter.

Which left me one solution: combine all the duties.

"Hunter," I said. "I need you to take me somewhere speedily."

"Where do you need to go?" He had been lying down on one of Caitlin's medical cots-the only sort we really had here-reading a book by Wells.

"Starling City," I said. "You're the only person here who probably isn't in Smoak's security system."

Hunter looked amused as he turned down the corner of his book page.

"I couldn't be in their system even if they got my statistics," he said quietly.

"Why's that?" I asked, frowning.

Instead of replying, Hunter put on his suit and grabbed me, speeding his way to Starling City. A few moments later, we were standing on a rooftop.

"I'm dead space in your world," Hunter said. "I vibrate at a different frequency."

"Doesn't that mean you should phase through everything around us?" I asked.

Hunter gave me a slightly patronizing look. I grimaced. I really needed to stop trying to understand physics, apparently.

"Never mind," I said quickly. "Could you go into the Verdant? Don't take anything, don't bother anyone, and please don't be seen. Just let me know what they're up to."

"Are you expecting them to do something to Central City or S.T.A.R. Labs?" Hunter asked.

"Oh, I'm expecting Oliver to be up to something," I muttered, sitting down on the edge of the roof.

Hunter disappeared in a crackle of blue lightning.

We never did figure out why Hunter was blue instead of red or yellow. I wondered now if it was because of whatever earth he was from. Earth-2. While not my field of science, I was horribly curious about the other earths. At the same time, I felt no inclination to go myself. This earth was fine, thanks.

"Abi?" said a voice.

I hesitated. Well, this earth was mostly fine. I turned to see Malcolm Merlyn, all trussed up in his black leather, an arrow trained on me.


End file.
